ATLANTA
Cops flip-flop on evidence that could acquit former
Panther
By S.
Tomlinson
Atlanta
Attorneys for Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown,
want the Fulton County District Attorney's office to know one
thing--they can't have it both ways. The defense lawyers are
seeking to bar evidence found in a search of Al-Amin's
store.
Cops claimed they had to conduct the search in order to find
bloody clothing or bandages that a wounded Al-Amin might have
left in his store. On the other hand, the police are changing
their story about whether or not there even was a "bloody
trail" the night two deputies were shot.
Some of the earliest reports from the March 16 shooting in
Atlanta detailed a fresh blood trail that led from the scene of
the incident to a specific property nearby. In the hours after
the shooting, which left one sheriff's deputy dead and another
wounded, the injured deputy named Al-Amin as the shooter. The
deputy also described to investigating officers how he wounded
his assailant.
However, when Al-Amin appeared in custody in Alabama a few
days after the shooting, he was unharmed. The blood was
obviously not his.
After the shooting, the police obtained a search warrant
citing the blood trail as evidence. They wanted to search
Al-Amin's store, near the scene of the shooting, for bloody
clothing and/or bandages. Since the assailant was wounded and
left a trail of blood, they reasoned, he would leave evidence
wherever he went.
A large team of highly armed officers wearing bulletproof
vests, shields and helmets entered Al-Amin's store to carry out
the search warrant. Officers found assorted papers and
Al-Amin's briefcase. There was no blood.
After the failed search and the appearance of an uninjured
Al-Amin in a Montgomery, Ala., court, police back in Atlanta
quickly changed their story regarding the blood trail. They
began reporting to the media that the blood trail wasn't
actually a trail. It was simply "some" blood found outside an
abandoned house nearly a block away from the shooting. Police
said it was unrelated to their case.
However, in the search warrant affidavit a homicide officer
stated that the blood was found at the exact spot where the
shooter stood and fired upon the two deputies. Officers at the
scene spoke to the media and described the blood as being fresh
and wet.
The officer who signed the search warrant affidavit was not
the lead detective. He was a homicide sergeant who did not go
to the scene of the shooting on that first night. Authorities
may argue that he was simply mistaken about the location and
importance of the blood.
Al-Amin's lawyers are expected to make a connection between
the blood trail and 911 calls recorded just after the shooting
in which callers report an injured man, bleeding and begging
for a ride near where the two deputies were shot. This suspect
has been all but ignored by police.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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